Pupils put up barricades after migrants expelled
Police sprayed tear gas at a few students throwing missiles but most marched peacefully, some climbing on bus shelters to shout demands for the interior minister’s resignation.
Anger erupted this week over the treatment of a 15-year-old Kosovar girl detained in front of classmates on a field trip. The government says her eight-member family had been denied asylum and was no longer allowed to stay in France.
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Hide AdSuch expulsions occur regularly in France as the government tries to limit illegal immigration. But the treatment of the girl touched a nerve, with critics saying police went too far, betraying France’s image as a champion of human rights.
The students say the expulsions are unfair to children and hope to pressure France’s Socialist-led government to allow the girl and a recently-expelled Armenian boy to return to France.
At one Paris secondary school, students piled rubbish bins in front of the entrance beside a banner saying “education in danger.”